When a pair of male turkeys engaged in a knock-down, drag-out, bill-busting, feather-flying fight — and did it in such a way as never seen by professionals whose job it is to observe wild turkeys — then I felt like I had seen a UFO.

But unlike the wingless saucers, proof of the turkey fight and their tactics is in the 65 or so digital frames I took of the occurrence, over 25-30 minutes. The collective photos show the birds grabbing and, apparently painfully, holding onto each others’ bills.

“This behavior is very unique,” said the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s 20-year veteran biologist, Mary Jo Casalena. “I’ve never seen it personally and to have these actions captured with photos … the pictures are a treasure.”

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Let me set the stage.

Remarkably it was earlier this month, November 2, a mid-fall day, and even more remarkably a few days after Hurricane Sandy blew through southeast Pennsylvania.

While homes were without power and the air was filled with the buzz of chainsaws cutting fallen trees – three or four days after the full moon — six turkeys walked onto a field that I was watching from a large dining room window.

Quietly at first, the six pillow-size birds — five males and one hen — ambled onto the far end of a grass land about 80-90 yards away.

Initially this was just a wonderful sighting and not unusual because turkeys make customary appearances at this site — sometimes several days apart sometimes several weeks.

As the birds entered from the edge of the woods onto the field — stage right — they appeared to stride normally making their way to an edge and a trail where so many of the creatures who visit this property seem to travel. None of the birds were pecking the ground for food, as they normally might.

As the sighting progressed, one turkey after another fluffed its body and fanned its tail. In turkey language, the actions were probable expressions of the flock’s pecking order.

As the birds proceeded a short distance, three or four of the males briefly fluffed their feathers and fanned their tail.

Then apparently two of the males took exception to each other.

Soon they separated from the pack. A brief contest of feather fluffing and breast-to-breast shoving ensued. However within moments one bird opened its beak and grasped and covered the other’s closed bill.

This was astounding to witness.

As I watched, one or the other male maintained an outer grasp on the other bird’s beak for periods of three to seven minutes. Intermittently they broke apart, then resumed the lengthy bill-grasping. During this time the male that seemed to have the advantage had its mouth over the other’s bill and nostrils.

The temporary leader kept its bill covering its opponent’s forehead and top of head, with its jaw hinge often cornered at the eyes of the one being beaten.

I’ve labeled the bird doing the grasping as the “leader” in the contest but watching this prolonged fight I wondered if having something stuffed into your mouth for so long was a clear advantage. Certainly the grasping turkey had its own eyes and nostrils uncovered but how, I wondered, might its stretched jaws feel and was its tongue being bitten?

The brief neck wrestling between the two birds to trade and reach this position was furious. However at no time did the birds rise up and extend their clawed feet against each other, called “spurring” — an action that is a common tactic in many bird fights.

Connected bill-to-bill the two males went back and forth in a shoving match with the loosing bird giving ground. Either the temporary looser was being forced backward or its tactic of escape was to back-up out of the other’s grasp, or both. Both birds used their open wings and tails as rudders, parrying to direct their respective positions.

There were a number of very brief breaks in the bill-grasping, like two boxers unclenching. But within a few seconds, with tight breast-to-breast contact and more neck twisting, one or the other bird gained the position of dominance. Over the length of their battle, one bird held the advantage considerably longer but it appeared that even the less successful bird briefly acquired an open-billed grasp around his opponent.

As the contest took place my first pictures were obtained some 60 yards away. Then I used a large mulberry tree as cover and crept within 30 yards.

As the two birds fought on open ground they drifted, bill-over-bill, into a thick weed and brush patch directly in front of the woods. I took this moment to get even closer to the fighters — about 20 yards — standing in the open. However as I did the four other birds that had been watching the contest strode off.

At this a couple of things happened quickly. One of the birds went down on the ground and the other stood beside it and pecked repeatedly. Then the grounded bird forced its way to standing. At that moment both males noticed my presence and dashed off into the woods, the leader chasing the looser.

About three hours later, to my complete surprise, all six turkeys returned into the open field. Though I saw no injuries, one bird appeared to sheepishly trail behind.

According to Casalena, young males (jakes) will fight for dominance in the fall but bill-to-bill behavior is apparently so unusual (or not observed) that is doesn’t even have a name.

“You’ll see their necks entwined while fighting but I have never seen something like that (bill-to-bill contact), not even in pictures,” she said.

Sometimes if you spend enough time looking, you are privileged to see a thing in nature that you have never seen before, and conceding the laws of probability and circumstance, you may never see again.

About the Author

Vic Attardo has been writing about the outdoors since age 6 when he caught his first magnetic fish in a bath tub and captured the tale with crayon.
Since then he has published literally hundreds of outdoors stories in national and state magazines.
He is currently a contributing editor to the Pennsylvania Angler and Boater, the official Pa. Fish and Boat Commission magazine; fish and tackle editor for Fur-Fish-Game and his work appears in every issue of the Pennsylvania Outdoor News. He is also featured in the Cabela's Outdoor Journal, the F&W Ice Annual, New York Outdoor News and many others. Reach the author at vicattardo@gmail.com
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